[b][i]Vega system, CFFG Independence[/i][/b]

With the course of action for the immediate future being ‘Halt in Vega’, Astra made her way on the Independence. Time came to tell them why their frigate group was organized to operate independently of both the Warrior and the Singularity. “Captain Auraxis, I was wondering if you could spare me a few hours of your time. I have a mission to discuss.” she said as she walked to the CnC.

Jumping to her feet, Auraxis gave Astra a salute. “You don’t have to ask, sir, that’s what ranks are for. Shall we go somewhere private?” she asked at the mention of ‘few hours’, expecting a two plus month patrol.

Nodding, Astra let auraxis lead the way. Once they were seated, the rear admiral started by asking a question: “Have you ever wondered, why is it that in this fleet, your group is organized to be reporting directly to me, and not operate under any of the heavy ships?”

“It’s crossed out minds, but commander Mirai and I agreed it was because we came straight from small ships with vastly different duties and you wanted us under a magnifying glass.” Auraxis answered, setting her helmet aside. “How far off were we?”

“Well, I will admit that part of it is me wanting to see what else you can do. But no, the reason is quite different.” Astra revealed, “As you may have noticed, Faira fleets are structured around a main ship, and a secondary ship or ships to act as it’s hunting dogs, so to speak. Strike is a bit different, in that both the Singularity and the Warrior will act in this capacity, having their own frigates to do the herding. Yours, however, is a different case. With the thinking and resourcefulness you and the Commander often displayed, it would be a waste of your time in this universe to have you climbing the ranks in the usual manner. The Independence group, Captain, was added to the fleet as a Black Operations group. The Commander, you, and most of the other crews were selected to be here because of your talents, be they tactical or strategic in nature. Now, I’ve come to collect on that.” she smiled, giving the Narix some time to absorb this.

“Okay, that came out of nowhere.” She said after a brief period of silence, “I’ll save that information for when we need a boost of morale. So, what is the Assembly asking of us? I assume some sort of reconnaissance, maybe seeing what there is to the Terrans?” she guessed. “Which would call for our pilots.”

“Not quite yet, Captain. While we would certainly like to see what there is to them, the Vasudans still pose credible enough threat to anger the terrans by entering their territory uninvited. Besides, the captured Vasudan cruiser was a vault of information on it’s own. What we know is enough for now. The mission concerns the Vasudans, and you are correct in assuming that it would require pilots. Please, pull up the files of your Muon pilots, Faira ones. This mission calls for my kind specifically.” the admiral shared.

“As you probably expect, the Vasudans would have fortified the other side of the node quite heavily. Even the Warrior’s shield might not last long enough under the volume of fire we expect on the other side. However, something as fast as a Muon stands a chance of getting through, and has the punch to do significant damage. This is exactly what we are going to do. One wing will slip through the node, and attack important infrastructure the Terrans have picked and scouted before while they still had beachheads in some of the Vasudan systems. They stand little chance of returning to our space, hence why I want Faira, who can, in worst case scenario, kick around on an asteroid for two years until the Halcyon is ready to be deployed and smash the Vasudan’s ugly faces in. I need you to go over the pilot files with me, and pick three best suited candidates. They will need to have someone who can determine what and where to hit, someone good with plotting jumps, and someone who can do maintenance and repairs on their craft. We will also need to install intersystem level jump drives, so their secondary capacity will be more limited than usual even for the Muon.”

“That throws volunteers out of the window.” Auraxis commented as she loaded the dossiers. “Here they are. I think I have a good candidate for the flight leader. What about senior enlistee Arcadi?” she displayed the selected pilot’s file. “Don’t think she’s ever left anything standing in her way during simulations.”

“I know her by reputation. The Explorer’s Master of Arms is her sister. Yes, her sim record was what got her into your group. Interestingly, she seemed to have no qualms taking out a city with several million lives either. Cruel even by our standards, but exactly what we might need here. We know the Vasudan government is highly centralized, and quite intertwined with their religion. Destroying their imperial palace or large temples might drive them to desperation… or to a relentless war. Is there anyone who could keep her in check, make the strategic decisions to apply her tactical ones?” Astra noted.

“Don’t know about the jumper, but I believe I have an engineer: senior enlistee Pyxis - an avatar of stoicism, played a part in the design process of the Block C Muon, knows the bombers inside out. The by-the-book type to counterbalance senior enlistee Arcadi’s bloodrage.”

“Mhmm, yes, perhaps. I imagine there aren’t that many Faira wing leaders yet, considering we are building our pilot numbers from the ground up and very slowly?” The admiral asked, pulling up the list of appropriate ranks, species and group. “Only one, actually, Leader Hydri, callsign Silver. Record says she’s a heavy fighter pilot, but it should be a mild adaptation. She is also an oracle, meaning she could plot the jumps, and with some training possibly even look for jump nodes the Vasudans and Terrans missed. If we could get an undefended entry vector, well… We wouldn’t have to wait for the Halcyon.” Astra noted. “Are they on duty? I’d like to talk with them.”

“That’s three, do we fill up the second section? That would let them pair off into two sections, leaving everyone covered.” she browsed the pilot roster, but found no one that would immediately stand out. “Let me see. Leader Hydri’s shift starts in six minutes, senior enlistee Arcadi is on a four-minute alert, senior enlistee Pyxis is off duty, maybe someone’s seen her. Wait, what about enlistee Taurus? A little hot-headed multirole pilot, but she can think outside the box. It took two wings of 242nd pilots more than ten minutes to find her in an asteroid belt. And she managed to get three of them using her surroundings to her advantage. But she only has about 400 flight hours on record, and just 120 on the Muon. Your thoughts?”

“The Terrans suggested running an exercise against some of their decommissioned hulls. Let us see what the enlistee can do. Send them an alert to meet me in the Garage-” she said, taking note on how the crews taken to calling the small hangar on the Curious class, “-we’ll have to talk customization. Explorer’s engineer’s are ready to put that assembly line to use, but they need an order. If you could let everyone finish their recharge and then tell them to meet me down there, I would much appreciate it. I think I’ll go have a look at what you’ve done with the ship in the meantime. Carry on!” Astra said with a smirk. Magnifying glass, indeed.

[b][i]CFFG Independence, hangar, eight minutes later[/i][/b]

The four pilots sat in a makeshift recreational area the Narix pilots built out of empty crates and collapsible chairs, allowing the alert pilots some degree of comfort while remaining within 60 meters of their fighters, not really sure what to expect as the captain left the message summoning them intentionally vague.

“You think we’ve screwed something up?” Taurus asked her compatriots as they waited for the rear admiral.

“Screw what up, a sim run? Unless you’re behind on your maintenance log, we should be fine. It’s probably just an inspection, maybe they even want our opinions on the crates we fly.” Shadow tried to ease up the tension, but being summoned by an admiral was, while not unheard of, rare.

“We are all classified for the tactical bomber…” Silver noted as she looked over the quartet that has gathered. “‘Think it could have something to do with that? Dice helped to build the current variant.”

“Think the Muon’s getting another upgrade? Secondary capacity, maybe?” Pyxis wondered. “Or maybe the Terrans need training so we don’t have to rescue their destroyers again?” she took a shot at the newfound aliens.

“Maybe we are selling them a Muon license to help the war effort?” Taurus offered, “It would get us a better bargaining position, too.”

“That is not a bad idea, Enlistee. Beats letting them see it and develop something similar on their own.” Astra commented, as she ended her inspection and came from behind the corner. “As you were, pilots. How are you settling in? All of you are from the first batch of trainees, correct?”

“Stars, don’t do that!” Pyxis, who had her back turned where Astra appeared yelped, turning to face her superior. “Correct, ma’am, though some more fresh than others when it comes to the Muon.” she answered, waiting eagerly to hear what this odd meeting was about.

“Yes, while I would like to send more senior people onto the mission that came up, I am afraid it calls for our kind rather than the Narix. You were all selected because of your unique talents. That said, come with me, we’ll talk more of the mission and the craft you would be flying.” Astra said, leading to the Muon racks. “As you know, the Muon is currently in the block c variant, with carousel munition bays and small delta wings to allow for atmospheric flight, with an unofficial block d for the command variant. How are you happy with this configuration?”

“It’s a sports shuttle that can put up with anything up to a frigate, but then it loses the punch. The Demon the Muons attacked in Terminus was shot up. Full strength, it seems like the HYVEL might have just bounced off.” Shadow grumbled.

“I could really use a pilot on the command version, and there have been general outcries for a two seater, so a dedicated ECM or weapons officer can accompany you, or an AI on top of the pilot.” Silver noted.

“Atmospheric performance relies solely on computer control. You don’t fly the ship, you suggest where it should go and the computer tries to turn it that way. If you drop below 480 kilometers per hour, it goes either straight or down.” Dice added, “Although I don’t expect an atmospheric deployment anytime soon.”

“Though offset by the HYVEl, secondary capacity where anti-ship topredoes are concerned leaves something to be desired. At least it can accommodate a wide variety of ordnance.” Rock shared.

“The Muon is not meant to carry a heavy load of secondaries. However, I might be able to do something for you with the cannon. We have recently reverse engineered the Relic version of the weapon, including some interesting ammunition. This mission concerns precision strikes with surprise on the enemy. Heavy load will not be necessary. In fact, some of the secondary capacity will have to go to fit an intersystem jump drive. What we need you to do, is to break the Deneb node and follow through to Sirius, where you are to hit critical yards of the Vasudan shipbuilding industry.” she finally shared.

“The four of us, ma’am? [i]Just[/i] the four of us?” Pyxis asked somewhat uncertainly. “Are we really that close to a full invasion of Deneb?”

“Not by a long shot, Dice. Which is exactly why Faira pilots have to undertake this mission.”

“You need someone who doesn’t need much inthe way of sustenance or support…” Silver connected the dots, “Someone who can live just on sunlight for… days?” the wing leader asked, receiving a shake of the head form Astra. “The Halcyon is likely the first chance we’ll get to break through without losing quarter of our ships. And that is two years away. I do not claim this mission will be easy. Staving off boredom until you’re picked up will be the least of your worries though.” the Admiral noted.

“But… A wing of these fast ships alone… The Zods are probably still going to be collecting their mouths from the ground when we warp away form the node, and the Sirius node should be far less defended…” Shadow realized what was in play.

“We won’t be sending you in blind. The Terrans have suggested an exercise, we’ll use that to gauge whether the strategy is even plausible. Are you up for it, pilots?” Astra asked, the one and only time.

“If not us, then who? Certainly not the Terrans.” Taurus shrugged. “How much do we know about Deneb and Sirius. How many Zods are there and are there even places to hide?”

“The exercise is welcome. Do we have a date?” Pyxis asked, actually looking forward to seeing what the Muon can do against aliens.

“You will have to rely on your wits. If you park on an asteroid and shut your fighters down save for life support, even we would have hard time figuring out where you are. But you will have to work with what you have on site - there might even be a way to get back sooner - Terrans and Vasudans have even weaker node detection technology than us, you’ll have to see. Silver is an Oracle - I would train you personally to teach you what you would need. Shadow is an Inventor, so you have a good chance of not only getting out of this, but causing some major mayhem.”

Astra then looked back to the bombers. “Before we even schedule the exercise, we will need to make the modifications to the craft themselves to see what we can shoehorn in once we know how much the internal volume will be restricted. We might even need to bring the Block As for this, with the external bays. Dice, I want you to shuttle over to the Explorer and start working with Captain Casei on this as soon as we are done here. For now though, let us get to a briefing room. I will answer any detail that I can so you can start working on what loadouts and tactics you would like to use.”

[b][i]Vega - Beta Aquilae node, NFC-GTA exercise[/i][/b]

“Confederate bombers, this is the GTD Krios. Your target is the GTC Hellas, protected by Delta wing. Delta, are you ready?”

“Yes sir. Delta, let’s show them what we’re made of!”

“Mace wing, you may begin at your discretion. Your objective is to get the Hellas down to fifty percent hull integrity.”

“They were told how this cannon works, right?” Shadow smirked over Mace’s private channel. The wing was hanging safely six kilometers out from the cruiser. “In that case, you might want to bring a tougher target, so Delta even has a chance to intercept!” She spat over the public channel as she lined up her shot and let a spray out of the RHVC, selecting solid ammunition as not to annihilate the cruiser completely. The rounds sped over the distance in just half a second, the audio simulators delivering a satisfactory ‘whap’ sound on impact, followed by the armor of the cruiser shattering on impact with the shell, floating off crumpled like a bit of aluminum foil.

“What the fuck?”

“The Hellas has dropped by 16 percent!”

“At them! Don’t let them fire again and for everything you hold dear, don’t get hit!”

The Apollos took off towards the Muons at full afterburner, straining to achieve radar lock due to the small profile of the Muon. Observing on the Independence, Auraxis laughed at the Apollo’s pathetic acceleration. Maybe they could sell the Terrans the Mk. III Avems, the Marauder’s predecessor, and claim they are top-of-the-line ships, it would still be an upgrade.

The Apollos finally made it to range, giving up their attempts at radar lock, instead resorting to the IR-guided MX-50 missiles.

“Alright, Ladies, Let’s show them why mounting jump drives on Bombers is worth losing a few missiles. Coordinates are locked in, we will emerge five kliks on the other side of here. With their travel time, it will be over before they can limp back to us. Engage on my mark!” Silver gave the orders, following by the Mark as soon as the Apollos opened fire with their lasers.

“Oh no, NO!!!” Delta three screamed as the Muons sunk into white and red vortexes, appearing about eight kilometers from them on the other side of the cruiser.

“Aim for the central column, there has to be the Fusion Mortar ammo rack in there somewhere!” Shadow called up, before letting the cannon rattle again.

As Delta one desperately tried to get command to enable their drives, the Hellas was reduced to half its strength, prompting the Krios to call the Confederate victory.

“For the next exercise, the Hellas will be defending herself. We are launching a Centaur and Beta wing to assist Delta. Mace wing, pick new starting coordinates. The exercise will resume once all fighters are rearmed.”

Two Apollos and two Angels left the Krios, forming around the Hellas while the shoebox with a cockpit refilled Delta’s missiles, some pilots swapping them out for Furies.

“Exercise commencing in three… two… one… go.”

The Angels shot out towards the bombers, much more suited for this than the Apollo.

“Dice, if we go full burn, how long of a window will they have to target us, and can the shields hold before we pass them?” Silver asked, as Mace was approaching head on to the cruiser.

“They’ll be breathing down our necks as soon as they turn around. We don’t know anything about the Terran weapons, so that’s anyone’s guess.”

“Interceptors at 5k.” Rock reported.

“Alright, as soon as you see cannon signatures or missile launch, point at the Cruiser and open up the burners. Target the fighters with the practice rounds, they should knock them off course. Protect Shadow! Shadow, you just focus on delivering the bombs. Break off at three kliks.” Silver issued the order.

As soon as the Angels fired, the Muons responded with the practice shells.

“Crap, Bosch, dive!”

“One, defending!”

The scout fighters broke off, burning to slow down so they could match speed with the Muons as they passed, one targeting Silver, the other hanging several hundred meters behind him, harassing the other three to make it hard for them to aim. The Apollos formed a wall, 4 about 1000 meters from the Hellas, standing by to pounce any warheads, while the rest of Beta loitered around the cruiser itself.

“Shields are holding. Sic the turrets on the pursuing fighters, focus your main guns on those ahead!” Silver said, her plasma turret blasting away already, directed by the AI they crammed into it instead of some space occupied by the HYVEL previously mounted there.

“Mace leader, Shadow. Ten seconds till we’re within drop range. Break off on my mark!” Shadow counted, lining up the drop onto the engine pod where the Fusion bomb would cause massive secondary explosion, were it not a dummy. “Mark!” she said and pushed the button, dropping the one bomb. The bomb would be undetectable by anything the Terrans would have, even being painted black. It only gave off weak EM signature, and only the Cruiser’s massive radar dish had a hope of detecting it. The Muons scattered, splitting off in four different direction.

“Heavens, their shields aren’t taking any damage!”

“Care, they’re breaking off.”

The Angels stayed on their course, realizing what had happened and saturated the area that was in front of Shadow’s bomber before she broke off, hoping to hit the bomb as it drew further and further away from them, giving the defending fighters and the turrets on the Hellas, remotely controlled from the Krios an idea of the bomb’s general area, allowing them to try their luck by blind firing. In the meantime, Beta two kept an eye and sensors on the Confederates in case they tried to play fighter pilots.

The bomb’s engineless construction made it impossible to detect by sensors or naked eye, even the Angels couldn’t see anything against the cruiser and four fighters. At one point, one of the ML-16 bolts disappeared in a flash, indicating a successful hit, but there was no way of telling what, if anything, it did to the bomb.

“I’ve lost the bomb telemetry, drat. Looks like ‘Spray and pray’ is a valid tactic after all.” Shadow groaned. “Should we come around for another run?”

“Anyone packing something that can deal with the fighters?” Silver asked around.

“60 rockets, 30:30 APHE and practice.” Rock reported. That, and the HYVEL cannons could probably knock the light Angel over to the neighboring postcode.

“They’re [i]still[/i] spraying the bomb.” Dice observed with great amusement. “They really can’t see it.”

“Good for us. Rock requesting permission to engage with practice munitions.”

“Granted, I’ll go cover you. Shadow, Dice, blast that cruiser out of the sky while we keep them busy please.” Silver said, turning around and heading to the cruiser’S bottom side to link up with Rock.

“I have five bombs left, I could try to drop it form further up, but if that cruiser moves…” Shadow told Dice, open to ideas.

“That would give them more time to intercept. How close are you willing to get while being able to evacuate safely?”

“Not much, it’s supposed to be a fusion bomb. The blast radius is about a kilometer. I think for the live mission, I will only take four and put something else into the freed up space.” Shadow complained. “We could put the bomb on time or proximity fuse and use it against the fighters if we can get them to bunch up…”

“Waste of ordnance. Retry the drop, I’ll follow. Once the bomb is loose, turn the HYVELs on any fighter that would try to take it down. Stay at least 1000 meters from the cruiser.”

“Alright. Silver, how are you doing, have they taken the bait?” Shadow asked, wanting to get a lay of the land. “I also have some antimatter rounds for the HVRC, but I really wouldn’t use those against a cruiser if I could help it…”

“We’re busy with four, the rest are holding near the cruiser.” Indeed, Beta wing remained on patrol, the two Angels already on their way to Dice and Shadow.

“Shadow, Dice here, if you score a hit, you’ll swat the escorts along with the cruiser. All you, I’ll give them something else to think about.” she set the turret to target one of the Angels, herself focusing on the other one. “I’ll get a bit higher along the Hellas’ Y axis to avoid that monster torpedo launcher, might want to do the same.”

“Ten four, i’ll put my turret on the one you’re attacking. If you can lure the other one into my crosshairs, we’ll splatter them both, those things are made of tissue paper!” Shadow said, going full throttle but saving the afterburner for the escape. This time, she intended to drop at the least possible moment.

“Mace, Silver. The cruiser has figured out our bomb is a dumbfire and started maneuvering. Do we need to change the plan?”

“Negative, I’m going danger close. Watch the blast, stay clear one klik of the cruiser!” Shadow answered as she picked up speed.

“Copy.” Silver acknowledged and shot away from the skirmish, her turret still engaging, turning to cover Rock’s retreat once beyond the safety line.

“I’ll try.” Dice answered Shadow, quite worried about the two extra Apollos messing things up again. Both Angels seemed to have figured out Shadow was the one responsible for the attacks, weaving past Dice and turning their attention to her. They timed their strike, the number two waiting for his leader to launch his payload of rockets before emptying his own banks, trying to bring Shadow’s shield down.

“You guys have missiles right? Let them eat dirt! The shield is starting to bleed through!” Shadow groaned, feeling the heatsinks flooding her ship with heat. The Faira was fine, the circuitry and engines not so much. She made a mental note to add some cluster bombs to their load out.

The fighters were annoying, but once the Cruiser engaged, she had to put in evasive maneuvers. “Drop in three, two one, Break break BREAK!” she shouted and flipped on the ABurn after she dropped the bomb aimed at the centre of the cruiser plus lead.

“We’re clear!” Silver reported, followed by an excited ‘YES!’ from Rock as one of the Terran pilots announced his simulated death.

Having ignored Dice proved a bad move for the Angels as she planted herself firmly at the six o’clock of Beta 2, obscuring the fighter with the practice round tracers. The turret had more luck hitting the nimble target and the fighter was forced to break off, the simulation software shutting down its starboard engine. Ignoring the stricken ship and leaving the turret to deal with it, she turned her attention to the first one, only to be hit from somewhere below and to the right. Beta 2 just did not want to give up. “Ugh, he’s actually good, Shadow, where’s the bomb?”

“I am the vanguard of your doom doom doom. I'm gonna make your world go boom boom boom…”

“Confirmed, if that hit, the Hellas AND Beta would be very crispy right now. Heck, the Krios would be pretty scorched on the outside. Mace got the best of you, Pilots. We will not proceed to the final part of the exercise. The Krios and Hellas will simulate a node blockade. Mace, you will need to survive for about ten minutes for your drives to recharge before you can jump out. How you do it is up to you. We will do everything we can to vaporize you. Well… good luck to you all.” Admiral Scott out, as the ships moved into position.

“Copy, Krios control. We’re setting up autopilot to simulate the node exit and blinding our sensors until the exit point is reached, Silver out.”

The Krios positioned itself perpendicular to the node, keeping it at its 3 o’clock, right in the path of the Moans to block the easiest escape route at the cost of being the first thing in their sights. The Hellas lumbered to the left flank while Delta flew patrol around the formation, keeping Beta on the right flank.

“Damn Greybacks are hard to crack, switch to Furies.” Beta one advised. “Ready when you are.”

“Alright, let’s try to leg it, that’s our default MO and probably best bet.” Silver noted as they travelled the simulated node, “We’ll come out shooting at maximum speed the safeties allow, transfer all power out of your guns into the engines and shield, and drain your weapons capacitor if you have to. Our task is to get through, to kill them all. Failing that, we’ll have to improvise, but I’d like to hear what everybody thinks. How are we looking with the ECM?”

“If we kill our active sensors, the jammers will make it nearly impossible to track us.” Dice noted, not talking about temperature, as that was obvious to everybody, “Do we stay in a group or separate upon exit?”

“Huddle up, turrets out.” Shadow suggested, “Leader, how are we on mindspace usage, still keeping that a secret?”

“Yes, Shadow, let’s keep an ace in the sleeve.” Silver noted, having asked Astra the same thing.

“No need to spare their computers though. We have both Terran and Vasudan comms protocols, so it would be accurate. I’ll try to get the Krios and Hellas to busy themselves with each other, let’s see if this AI is worth the space. I’ll also program some of my TAG beacons with our IFF transponders and shoot a few out.”

“Exit in thirty seconds.”

“If I may, huddling up sounds like an express ticket to whatever lies beyond.” Rock interjected. “If one ship goes, it could take the rest with it, especially Shadow’s antimatter warheads.”

“If it’s that easy to bring a Muon down, then we might as well abandon the mission. Boost your shield quadrant that is sticking out, and call a scatter if your shield power goes below 50%.” Silver said in the short time they had remaining, letting loose five TAG missiles with the fake IFF beacons in a cone in front of her. “Full gas, ladies!”

The Terrans did not have a good time when four bombers came into view, ‘exiting the corridor’, but the sensors tracked five bombers several dozen meters ahead and getting further away, thermal imaging showing just four bombers corresponding with visual. Smaller, computer controlled turrets immediately let loose on the five false blips, no doubt giving the Faira a laugh, while the fighter pilots took several seconds to even realise what was going on. Immediately after, the communication channels were filled with random gibberish and electronic warfare officers responsible for the Krios and the Hellas were swamped in firewall warnings.

The manned turrets opened fire, going by nothing but thermal signature as the fighters tried to intercept with no effective means of communication. The Muon cluster shot past, giving Beta wing their taillights and leaving the patrolling Delta only seconds to react. One of the Apollos found itself right in their path, unaware of the four bomber-sized projectiles coming at him from below where he couldn’t see.

“There is a two klik long shoebox in our waaaaaay!” Shadow squealed as the purple mass of the Krios was expanding in her view. “‘Pollo’s, twelve o clock!” She reported when she noticed the poor sod, letting a burst of the practice rounds, hitting on the chin and sending him into at least a 5G spin.

“Stern side, engine wash is better than turrets!” Silver growled, directing her craft left, popping the comms probe onto the Krios in the confusion, hoping to hear what orders the Admiral would give to hunt them down, once they defeated the plethora of awful dubstep the ECM suite was pumping into every speaker on the ship.

Poor Delta four had a bad day. Despite the worst of Terran music and the ‘Over G’ alert blasting in his ears, he could hear his fighter twisting. 5 G was an understatement.

Going around the engines befuddled the Terrans, as the engines would normally fry their unshielded ships. “Military thrust, full port.” Scott said calmly. “Idle engines are one thing, full thrust might deter them. Hellas, Climb X axis, fusion mortar facing us. Delta wing, leave a man behind and intercept while you are in range. Beta three and four, recover Delta four, you’re out of range anyway.”

The rest of Delta fared little better, the initial signs of trouble being their canopies getting smeared by bouncing practice shells, with the odd plasma bolt and missiles joining soon after. The news were not bad just for the Terrans though.

“Stars! DIVE!” Shadow screamed when she saw the engine plume belching form the engines of the Orion. “That is an MoT failure right there!”

“Helm, bow up 45 degrees.” Scott immediately gave the order to reorient the ship, hoping the Faira would pull up to evade the now descending engine plume and fly past Delta wing straight into the line of fire of the Hellas’ fusion mortar. The Beta Angels finally caught up, realizing what the Admiral was trying to do and gunning to get below and to the left of the Muons to herd them toward the Hellas. All of this assuming the Muons wouldn’t be in the next postcode by the time the Krios turned.

Unfortunately for the Admiral, that was wishful thinking. The four Faira ships zoomed past, caring not for the destroyer or the fighters, using their speed and shield to their advantage. Twenty kliks out, they slowed down and broke formation. “How are we doing?” Silver asked for status.

“My Afterburner reserves are down to twenty five per cent. We’ll need to figure out a different way to do this, I have barely enough for one attack run.” Shadow groaned. “I dunno, drop tanks maybe?” 

“I need to rack up more flight hours in this thing.” Taurus gunted, having fumbled with the high-speed maneuvers a little. “Wait, incoming!”

Two groups of jump points, four each, formed around the bombers. Out came flat slabs of metal with cockpits and [i]many[/i] secondary bays.

“Mu wing on station, let loose!”

The Athena-class bombers released a massive volley of furies, saturating the general area of the Muons with rockets.

“MACE, SCATTER!” Silver shrieked, hitting her throttle. The Furies were little puffsticks with about as much energy in it’s tiny warhead as was in it’s tiny engine, but there were many, MANY of them heading their way. Her shield dropped by full forty percent before she was out of range.

Shadow blasted out, low afterburner reserve or not, but as she reached out of range, she turned around, growling in anger. “Oh, really? Can I play?” she called to noone in particular, opening up with the RHVC on maximum setting, picking her targets and aiming for the missile bays on the Athenas as she glided backwards.

The Athenas scattered like birds, some swerving in attempts to avoid the lethal HYVEL while the others flocked to Shadow, a pair of Athenas, though under fire, unloading what remained in their banks into her ship, trying to either make her back away or draw attention to themselves away from their still-armed comrades, in turn giving them a chance to fire.

“Got your back, Two!” Silver called over, her cannons slamming into the athenas pursuing Shadow. “Dice, Rock, report!”

“Dice, tailing two, shield at 38 percent and holding.” a calm voice announced.

“Rock, spiked, vector two-six-two inc one two.” a mildly excited voice called over, the transmission carrying a little static. “Shield at 16 percent and recovering, they got through.”

“...Rock, can you fake a power failure and play dead?” Silver asked as she splashed the two Terrans pursuing Shadow. The black Faira caught on, her engines seemed to flash before her ship went dark. The only thing that would seem strange was that beforehand, she fired her thrusters to come to a relative stop.

Rock fired her thrusters to shake off the Terran’s aim and cut her engines, tempted to leave the shields up and charging, but deciding against it. One of the pursuing Terrans took off chasing after Silver, but another seemed intent on making sure, likely believing the simulation software more than his eyes. Dice, having finished one of her targets, set the turret to track the other and turned to aid the younger pilot.

“Splash two! Yeah!” One of the Mus hollered, floating close to Shadow’s Muon. “The hell? Where did she g-?” Then the training software turned his dashboard off as he looked up, gazing into Shadow’s eyes and glowing sidearm.

“Three?” Another of them came to investigate, wondering what made his craft shudder suddenly when there were no rocks to hit him.

“Four, break break, something’s on your bomber!” the flight leader almost panicked, having seen something like this for the first time in his life. Mu four turned hard 180 degrees on full afterburner, trying to remove the foreign body.

“Bomber?” Dice thought, the comm probe still doing its job. “Those things are bombers?”

“Wheeeeee!” Shadow shouted into the Terran comms frequency as she mag locked onto the fleeing Athena, climbing over the cockpit and pulling on the emergency canopy release, suddenly climbing into the pilot’s view, her sidearm pointed at his head. Switching to the secure training channel, she explained: “You’re out, pilot, Taxi me back to my ship, then simulate having your autopilot turned to ram the Cruiser.”

It understandably took the pilot upwards of five seconds to understand just what the hell was happening. “WHERE is your ship?” he finally stammered, having lost sight of it when he tried to get her off. Meanwhile, the remaining two Muons continued their dance with the Athenas, gaining the upper hand as the Terrans slowly expended their Fury banks.

Shadow pointed in the exact direction, the Terran noticing she didn’t even have to look. In a few seconds, her ship powered up again, joining the fight and bringing their number further down. Meanwhile, Delta wing who was limping close to intercept would be unexpectedly busied by Mu four gunning for the Hellas.

“That was interesting!” Mirai commented to her XO, coming to the bridge from her recharge. “How are they doing?”

“Words fail to describe what’s happening out there.” Auraxis shook her head. “One of your kinswomen just disabled one craft and sent another on a collision course with the Hellas while outside of her ship. I thought they were supposed to get away from the node and hide as soon as they could jump?”

“Mu four, what are you doing?”

“His canopy’s out!”

Realizing just what was happening, or at least what the intended end result of it was, Delta four turned around and raced to intercept the rogue Athena, leaving three undamaged Apollos to reinforce Mu wing.

Taking the time to let her shield recover, Rock pounced the trio, her multirole experience showing.

“Squad, fuel?” Dice suddenly inquired.

“20 percent of ABurn left, nevermind though, thirty seconds to jump, the Apollo scrubs will still be two kilometers gone when we jump.” Silver noted, looking at the clock. “Krios, Independence, can we call it in and head to the Garage to examine the bombers? Modifications will need to be made, I’m afraid.”

[b][i]CFD Warrior, Three days later[/i][/b]

“Hm, it needs a bit of paint.” Rock commented, looking over her modified Muon with an extra fuel tank hanging from its underside like a tumor. Another tumor took the form of a dorsal hump that housed the extended shield capacitors. “Some blue, maybe?”

“Tssk. You want to minimize visual detection, no?” Shadow said, standing next to the ‘CFB Shark’, how she was calling her customized ship.Two of the fusion bombs were gone rom the loadout, in their place an EMP Generator and a pod with six anti-fighter aspect seekers. The fixed HYVEL was also replaced by the more powerful RHVC. The ship lost it’s shark mouth to a black coat specially made to absorb radar waves and the surface was nano-treated to disperse targeting lasers.

“Give it up, the fighter pilot ego is strong with that one.” Silver smirked, her own ‘CFB Commander’ upgraded as well. One of the TAGs was gone as well as the communication taps, replaced by additional advanced EW suite and sensors.

“Ma’am, if your singing doesn’t tip them off, nothing will. Then again, maybe we could weaponize it. It wouldn’t take much effort.” the younger pilot shot back.

“Anyone thought of using their own culture against them?” Pyxis asked, “Leave a bunch of propaganda posters after a hit, maybe some excerpts from their sacred texts? Or some of their symbols on the ships? Exploit their weaknesses.” Her own bomber lost the two radar seeking missiles in favor of a storage container for small repairs and maintenance.

“I’m fairly sure Admiral Libra and ambassador Taranis would have poured over those in details, but that is something better used in a ground campaign. We’ll be operating mostly in space. On this sortie that is. I’m sure those texts must have been a good laugh though.” Silver grinned.

“Personally, I think we should just wait for the Halcyon and Singularity and do some divine smiting on our own, but the terrans are impatient. They are already planning on pushing through the node they guard, or so Virgo heard. Anyway, I am more interested in the gizmo Rear Admiral Astra is building that should give us clear pass through the node. Apparently the Terrans are calling it the ‘Next gen MOAB’, whatever that means.” Shadow grunted, finishing up loading the bombs and doing an electronics check.

“It would’ve been preferable, but who knows how many destroyers the Vasudans would gather in the meantime?” the technician shared, “Although what we’ve seen was objectively bad, they could have dozens of these against just one Halcyon. And although that thing even has torpedo tubes in multiple directions, they only reload so quickly.”

“Maybe if we wait long enough, they’ll try to break through again. Whether it’d be a good thing or not. How long do you think we’ll survive?” It wasn’t the insertion she was worried about, it was what will come after it. Being a major shipyard, Sirius would likely be filled with yellow fanatics.

“We should be fine once we get through. The Terrans had time to adapt and they still had hard time detecting us. My ship is also packing stronger scramblers than before and with the drop tanks, we can get out of range much faster. What I’m worried about is how we survive the two years of boredom we will have to endure before a pickup arrives. Anyone has even a crazy idea on how to get back home with no guns and afterburners?” Silver grunted, the prospect of camping on an asteroid not too appealing.

“Assuming the Vasudans don’t adapt and overcome the jamming. Or the Halcyon offensive fails. Or-” Pyxis nudged her in the ribs. “Ever the optimist, you’ve spent too much time with the Narix. I guess we can kill some time by looking for a node, but I wouldn’t get hopeful. Technically, we could bring a few Terabytes worth of books. Maybe even that religious hogwash.”

“Should we bring some Terran-related materials to study? Just in case.” Taurus added.

“They will have to be on guard for us in several systems and we’ll be doing hit and run attacks. Hopefully all primary objectives will be done before they manage to lock anything but heat seeker and cameras on us.” Silver thought out loud.

“What if we hijack a ship?” Shadow said suddenly. “Four of us, even lacking Marine training should be able to de-crew a cruiser, and in turn, that should be able to last before we jump it through the node…”

“Assuming we figure out how to operate it before the Vasudans catch up on our plan, even with knowledge from the one we captured earlier. But it does give us an idea of how to approach, how to board and what to expect inside.” Dice looked to the storage container on her bomber. “And we can bring some specialised equipment if we want to go through with it. You think there’s time to practice that? Last I heard, the captured cruiser is still mostly intact.”

“Pros of being an admiral’s black ops wing, ladies, is having the rear admiral on a speed dial. If the terrans give us a few pointers, this sounds reasonably well. Dice, how much space do you have? If necessary we could tear out my turret and put in a few more grenades.” Silver noted, linking to Astra.

“I’d rather keep turrets if possible. And if we run out of space we could store small things in the cockpits. The Terrans wouldn’t happen to have a neurotoxin tailored to Vasudans on hand by chance, would they?”

“If they don’t, the Narix can probably whip up something that would work. I think we’re better off stealing one that is being repaired or resupplied.” Shadow noted, “Engineers and repair crews are easier to dispose of while the Marines are on shore leave. And we have the RHVCs to create the necessity to repair one. Now I’m not the engineer, but an Aten sized applique armor should get four Muons through, no?”

“Yes, that seems feasible. Finding one that’s being repaired shouldn’t be a problem, the Terran intelligence says Sirius is full of shipyards. I’m surprised you of all people intend to leave something intact enough to be repaired, Shadow. But docks are likely to be defended, especially if we start targeting them. Are you sure ambushing a ship that’s out on a patrol or a shakedown run after being repaired wouldn’t be better? When you’re out testing a freshly patched up ship, there’s no need to bring more than skeleton crew along.”

“I intend to leave us intact for the attack on Vasuda Prime first and foremost. Our orders are to sow fear to the hearts of Vasudans, not to sacrifice ourselves in a desperate bid to stop us from losing the war.” Shadow grunted. “Sure, let’s cause mayhem if we can. I can’t wait to hear the screams on my radio. But enough Faira dies at the depot, no need to add us to the memorial wall.”

Shadow was interrupted by the buzz of a mind jump as the Admiral arrived personally. “What do you need, Black wing?”

“Ma’am, do you think it would be possible for us to receive some training on how to hijack a Vasudan cruiser?” Silver noted.

“It’s not really within the timeframe we thought up. Every day we wait the Vasudans fortify the node even more. The sooner you go the less trouble it is going to be. We are converting a decommissioned Narix cruiser into the biggest bomb you have ever seen to clear a path for you, but it won’t take out destroyers. Are you confident you can break through with the delay?”

Silver looked at the wing, silently asking for their opinions.

“That depends on the delay. Do we spend three days on the training, or do we try once or twice just to see if it’s even feasible?” Pyxis asked her wingmates. “We’ll have two years to figure out our plan of attack in detail once we’re there.”

“That could work. Get a lay of the land, so to speak, maybe a quick course by the Terrans on where to stab them for a quick kill.” Shadow nodded.

“Alright, we can spare a few hours.” Astra nodded, sending a message to Virgo and Libra to set up the exercise immediately. “How is the equipment?”

“We just painted.” Silver smirked, “They’re four of a kind now, each tailored to a role. Mine is a recon and electronics package, Shadow has a high survivability, high firepower package, Pyxis is packing half a repair shop and Rock added on some more shielding to address the weaknesses identified in the exercise. Considering Vasudan fighters are even worse than their Terran equivalents, the bombers are as ready as they’ll ever be. If you’re sending a miniature sun ahead of us, all the better.”

“Seems alright. Any further requests? We can try sending a support ship on autopilot with you. It could give you some edge in the long run. By the way, what’s the marine training for?”

“Can you rig up a few drones that would mimic the silhouette of the bombers? Give the Vasudans more targets so it’s not just the four of us they’re shooting at. Maybe load them up with a warhead on a timer. The less equipment that falls into their hands, the better. Just imagine their faces when they bring one on board to study and get half their hangar turned inside out.” Pyxis offered.

“Shadow had the idea of…how to best put this?” Taurus scratched the chin of her helmet. “Shadow thought waiting for two years is wasteful and had the idea of hijacking a Vasudan cruiser to use as additional ablative armor and break through the node back to Vega. While you’re here, admiral, thoughts?”

“I’d give you the drones, but where would you put them? Your banks are already full. Unless you’re talking full sized strikecraft drone, which would almost double your thermal signature, I’m not sure that’s wise, considering it’s one of the few sure means of detection they have on you. You may do better to just glide in with your engines cut. It’s not a problem if you decide to do so though.” Astra noted.

“Yeah, Shadow is like that. Unplanned spacewalks in the middle of a firefight and all. Hence why she’s here. It might be doable, it will depend on the situation whether you will want to hide your fighters inside the cruiser or just clamp onto the surface and point it to where the worst punishment is going to be coming from. I could certainly think of two years of work to give you on top of this. Very well, you’ll get your crash course. Get your recharge and report on the Warrior in eight hours.” Astra nodded.

“Increasing thermal signature was their intended purpose. The drones were meant for the initial insertion, bring them into the corridor with us and detach them before exit. You’re sending a cruiser-sized bomb ahead of us anyway, they will know something’s up. The idea is to give the Vasudans more targets and make it easier for us to get away from the node.”

“After the cruiser goes up, the temp in five kilometers around the node is going to be about a thousand degrees. Whatever thermal sensors they are going to have, they’re going to be very monochromatic and very bright. Fortunately that’s only mildly hot for the shields and life support you’re packing. Only the destroyers will be able to see through that, and it will take about half an hour for the cloud to disperse enough for their unshielded fighters to launch, or for the bays to open for that matter. Jumping to Sirius is going to be your main problem. The blockade should be smaller, but up and about.” Astra answered.

“Very well, then.” She deferred to the rear admiral’s judgement.

[b][i]CFD Warrior[/i][/b]

“If we don’t make it back here, well, my final days were interesting.” Shadow grunted, looking at the four ships lined up in the Warrior’s launch bay. “I hope we didn’t tell many Terrans about this, apparently there are Vasudan sympathizers among them. For whatever the reason.” the black tinted Faira huffed. 

“I get being tired of the war, but betraying your own kind? What is wrong with these people?” Taurus shook her head. “Have you seen the way some of the crew look at us? Something between ‘they’re avatars of bravery’ and ‘they’ve completely lost it’.”

“Well, have you?” Captain Auraxis appeared from behind one of the bombers. “A crew for the history books. How’s the mood?”

“Apparently, if the psych evals are to be believed, I lost it a long time ago, Ma’am.” Shadow smirked.

“I can [i]vouch[/i] for that.” Silver grunted, having the pleasure of being Shadow’s bunk mate. “We are as ready as one can be to do what no one dared to do before. Hopefully we’ll also get back to teach a few classes on what we did and let some other sods do this work.” 

“We’ll bring you back a cruiser and a few corpses for souvenirs.” Shadow added, earning herself a bump on the helmet.

“I’m glad to hear you’re taking it this well. But remember: we’re not asking you to win the war. Just pave the way for the big guns and come back home safe, we’ll wait for you with dinner.” Auraxis was sure Vasuda would burn if something happened to this group, even if they had to figure out how to ignite all the sand beforehand. Then again, it might happen either way. “And if you can bring back an officer or two that are still breathing, we’re not going to complain!”

“Alright. Mace, mount up and get ot your pre-flight checks, we’re launching in ten minutes.” Silver ordered, sealing her helmet on.

“Noone will miss you - when you’re finally gone - at your conclusion - sing your swansong!” Shadow sung as she climbed into her cockpit, linking her suit to the controls. Often not appreciated by the others who favored sticks and dials, the inventor preferred to have her mind linked up to the ship, halving her response time.

“Mace wing, you are cleared for launch when ready. The CNC Ardor is ready to deploy.” The old Guardian, recognised by some to be the Erixa, had its turrets replaced with mockups and its hull was covered in messages left by the refit crew, ranging from taunts to curses.

“Command, what’s that thing packing exactly?” Shadow asked. It was Astra responding: “The Terrans came with an unexpected gift. They are starting something they call ‘project tsunami’, and the first stage included building the largest particle accelerator you have ever seen to create antimatter on large scale. They gifted us the first few batches and ‘waste’, which is any antimatter of different antiproton number than they desire. We’ve basically turned the shield to contain it on the inside. When the Vasudans offline the power grid on that ship, the shield will breach, mater will meet antimatter, at which point they are toast.” the admiral answered, the smirk apparent in her tone. “That ship packs fifty gigatons of ordnance, so make sure your safeties are on.”

“I almost, ALMOST feel sorry for them.” Taurus shared on the wing’s internal channel. “Then again, not really.”

“How long do we expect the transfer to take and how far ahead of us is the Ardor going to be?” Pyxis asked. Somehow, perhaps for security reasons, this information hasn’t been made available to them. “I think we’re ready. Mace leader?”

“Recalculating form the Terran travel time, the trek is about half an hour, quite a long one. We estimate the area will be traversable for your ships five minutes after detonation. To guarantee your survival, we’ve put a timed shutdown of the shield upon exit, just in case the Vasudans there are woefully inept. You’ll have an extra minute before you go to be on the safe side. Ardor jumping in two minutes.” Warrior’s sector controller reported. Indeed, the profane cruiser started shuffling towards the node.

On the Independence, Auraxis wondered what goes through someone’s mind when they know they might be dead in seven minutes. “Fingers crossed the Ardor doesn’t break down now like the Curious did.”

[b][i]Deneb - Vega node, half an hour later[/i][/b]

“The radio has been awfully calm, Cancer one. Usually, the controllers are curising us with divine wrath when we deviate five degrees form course. They didn’t even notice now.” cancer two mentioned.

“Command has been tight lipped about the whole incident. In any case, the response to the unknowns has gone badly. The question is, how much? Are our brothers still fighting, or are they with the creators now?” The leader noted on the wing’s private channel.

“Two battlegroups have arrived to the node, but are not proceeding any further. It is too strong a compliment for a rear guard too. I am worried we might have lost the other end of the node.” the Two shared.

“Worries will not do. If your suspicions are correct, then keep your senses sharpened, for the infidels may be through the node any minute.”

“Cancer wing, PVD Hakor. We are reading strange signals from the node. Head to the node and investigate.” the leading destroyer of the group of four spaced around the node radioed over.

The fighters broke off their patrol paths, heading to their demise as a Mindspace vortex opened near them and ripped them to shreds, spewing the CNC Ardor into normal space. “Unidentified ship, you are trespassing in Vasudan territory. You are ordered to power down and surrender.”

[b][i]Meanwhile in the node…[/i][/b]

“Hear that, Silver? They want the ship to power down. How about we comply?” Shadow burst out laughing.

Having an idea, Silver patched herself through the decommissioned cruiser’s comm link. “Understood, Vasudan. We are a diplomatic ship and are unarmed. Power down ETC five minutes. Please send a shuttle to collect our ambassador.” she radioed over, receiving a confirmation. The cruiser’s telemetry also noted the sole Typhoon class moving closer into range.

“Ohohoooo, are we really going to scratch another flat one? Can we be this lucky?” Shadow giggled.

“I am legitimately disturbed by your demeanor, Shadow.” Pyxis shook her head as she observed the readouts of Ardor’s power levels, a large dial counting down the five minutes in the corner. “Camera 6 is tracking what appears to be the shuttle.”

“The blockade is smaller than I expected.” Taurus noted. “More backup is probably waiting somewhere else in the system. The area denial aspect of the weapon might force them to jump farther away. If the blast can at least stun that destroyer, we might be gone before they can do anything about it.”

“That would be preferable to them still being on the way.” Silver noted, “We really need the least amount of ships at the next node.” the wing leader noted. “I do not expect much action anywhere but there. Then they either can’t find us and we hide, or they can and we better start learning religious chants and pray that Ambassador Taranis doesn’t haunt us when she passes. That said, the rear admiral’s orders are clear. No piece of tech and no prisoner of war is allowed to fall into the enemy hands. Are we all clear on this?”

“Good luck piecing the fine mist the reactor behind me is going to turn me into back together for interrogation, Sandmen.” Taurus scoffed.

“Given the massive losses they’ve already suffered at our hands, and the massive losses they are about to suffer, I think suicide by any means is preferable to what they’d do to us. And the Narix still haven’t executed the Vasudans in charge of the Vasudan First Contact Massacre, I imagine that will lead to a few grudges.”

“Time?”

“T minus two. The Vasudan shuttle just docked.to the Ardor, the bluff will be called sooner than we would like, Pyxis, can you detonate manually?” Silver inquired.

“Yeah, ain’t no destroyer running away form this show!” Shadow pipped up.

“Think so. Good thing these things are so old, no wonder they’re being retired.” Pyxis turned her attention to the Ardor’s power distribution system and powered up [i]everything[/i].

The Ardor’s power grid collapsed almost immediately after, releasing its deadly payload. The profane cruiser and everything within its general vicinity ceased to exist. The unfortunate Typhon was a little too close for its crew’s comfort, as evidenced by its now red-hot outer hull. Most turrets and one of the hangar openings have been put out of service.

“Well, now we wait. And hope by the time we arrive, it’ll still be too hot for any Vasudan to bother us.”

“If you were a Sandman and someone blew up a cruiser in your face, how long would it take for you to stop praying and get your bearings straight?” Taurus laughed.

“I kind of wish we could get a camera in there. Just to see the carnage and the looks on their faces.” Shadow noted.

[b][i]At the blockade[/i][/b]

“Hakor! Do you copy!” one of the commanders of the older class destroyers was trying to reach the commander, among the myriad of other voices on the radio, most coming from the concerned destroyer and screaming. On the display, the Hakor’s disaster beacon was blaring, displaying the internal temperature anywhere between 500 to 90 degrees. The commander estimated that 90% of the destroyer’s crew was dead, the remaining ten was crippled for life or going to die soon, even if the destroyer itself might perhaps be salvageable.

“They have cruisers to spare as bombs!” One of the fighter pilots panicked, “We are doomed.”

The screams of the Hakor’s crew were promptly replaced by eerie silence as the destroyer’s communications succumbed to the furnace temperatures. Most were unaware what the temperature in the hangar was doing to the destroyer’s fighter and bomber ordnance stores. Those who knew had no way of warning the others before several secondary explosions rocked the stricken ship.

No one would fault the Vasudans if they failed to notice four small vortexes forming in the node before dissipating, the still lingering ambient temperature masking most of the heat emitted by the confederate bombers.

Pyxis gasped in amazement, manually pointing her turret at the Hakor, her gun camera capturing the frightening, yet strangely beautiful sight. She didn’t care if she had to give an arm and a leg for it, but she was saving that footage when they get back home.

“Woah, the shields don’t exactly like this. Punch it ladies, we’re holding for now but losing about a percent every ten seconds, no time for sightseeing.” Silver shared, checking over the sensor readings.

“Strangely beautiful though.” Shadow said, her eyes glued to the hull camera, showing the hot particles impacting the shield, creating a beautiful colorful map. “Alright, moment’s over, let’s go save the Federation. Shall we take pot shots at the crippled destroyer? I’m also picking up a blob of molten metal and slag, Aten class I suppose.”

“I’d hold fire until they notice us.” Pyxis advised, “And I’m only partially sure our ordnance wouldn’t blow up in our face in this mess. Rock, can you jump us out?”

“Aye, someplace specific? Leader?”

“I sense the node, but I didn’t have much training time. There is something big around, but whether it’s a Typhon or one of the older boats I can’t tell, the node is interfering too much. Shall we target about ten klicks way and glide it down? We still have about thirteen minutes for our intersystem drives to recharge. There is an asteroid field about ten kliks form the node, can you work with that, Taurus?” the leader inquired.

“I can get us into the belt, but we may have to pull some crazy stunt flying since I don’t know what it looks like. I’d boost shields and engines if you haven’t done so already. Jump in four… three… two… one...”

The edge of the asteroid belt was mostly small chunks of ice no bigger than one meter in diameter strewn several dozen meters apart. The four bombers fit between without issues. “Whew, we’re in luck, but it’s not much cover.” with the path between her and the node clear, she cut the engines and started looking around with the turret camera, the starlight reflecting of the ice creating a spectacular light show. “This war is quite beautiful so far. Can you make out what’s at the node?”

[i]“I can see the typhon with my eyes. That’s 120 strikecraft they could throw our ways. Minimum EM usage![/i] Shadow thought telepathically over to her wing. Against that number, the best the Muons could do was run like hell.

[i]”At least three wings on guard, two more on patrol routes. Massive shipping, counting twenty four cargo containers, that’s enough to supply a fleet for a couple of months. Do we take a few shots with the RHVCs while they don’t know where we are? They are quite small and quick, and we can load AP to minimize ammo signature.”[/i] Shadow noticed.

[i]”Hold fire for now, let’s wait for the drives to charge first. Pyxis, I’m patching you to my sensor readings, can you read any weakspots on the big ships? Battle damage, armor fatigue, lower than usual power readings?”[/i] Silver asked.

[i]”You think they’ll scramble some of the fighters to the node? If they haven’t noticed us, they might be thinking a spearhead fleet is coming through. MIGHT.”[/i] Taurus ‘thought out loud’.

[i]”The engines seem exposed and weakly armored. The two ventral spikes and the dorsal tower are emitting a lot of EM radiation, possibly communications. The dorsal hump could be a sector control tower, or astrogation decks. Other than that, the hull armoring seems solid. It’s like the ship is new or something. So what’s the plan? Charge the drives, enter the node, silence the destroyer, whack a few containers and jump?”[/i]

[i]”We should have brought our heavy fighters. They wouldn’t know what hit them. [/i]We[/i] still do not know what the Explorer’s chief actually built. They are not packed enough to warrant a bombing run. Let’s hit the comms array on the destroyer first when we start moving, hopefully that will make the fighters clueless for a little longer. Set your turrets on any fighter within two kliks and head to the node. If you can get pot shots on the cargo on approach, take them, but save your ammo. Our primary objective is Sirius.”[/i] Silver decided.

[b][i]Meanwhile…[/i][/b]

Two Atens came through the node, starting to circle the exit point. “GVD Sharlatan, cruiser wing Aquarius. The GVD Pharaoh is en-route, ETA two minutes. We have heard rumors that the unknowns have begun an invasion. Do they hold true?”

“Unknown, Shipmaster.” The Sharlatan’s XO answered, “The long range sensors can not penetrate the radiation cloud yet, and it is too hot to send in any recon fighters. We do not track any ships entering the system though. Perhaps they hope to simply move their defense point to this side of the corridor. In any case, the last transmissions we received spoke of a single cruiser entering the system. Then the Hakor went silent.”

[b][i]Back at the asteroid belt…[/i][/b]

[i]”Woah! Targets!”[/i] Shadow thought out loud.

[i]”Just two cruisers, wouldn’t even be a fair fight if it wasn’t for that destroyer-”[/i]

[i]”Ah! There’s a destroyer on the way!”[/i] Silver recognized the node activity. [i]”Damn, that is so bomb worthy, but we’d have to engage before they spread, and we can’t last ten minutes out there with 240 fighters and bombers on our tail. Can we?”[/i] Silver said, admittedly thinking about it. Shadow was practically drooling at the prospect.

[i]”It’s only 240 fighters if the destroyer is capable of launching, I’m game. Shadow, can you release one of the bombs and let it drift like you did during the training? It looks like they’re all so busy with the fireworks at the Vega node they might not notice it until it collides with the Typhon’s engines. And by that time, we’ll be almost at the node. When that blows, we can use the confusion to get out, maybe even take a few shots at the cruisers.”[/i] Pyxis suggested. [i]”But given the Ardor Incident, now they WILL know we’re here for sure.”[/i]

[i]”I don’t know. We still have twelve minutes on the charge, the destroyer will be here in about two. Whatever blast residue there is should be clear by then, but the fusion bombs are no profanity cruise missiles. If we give them the time to spread, the bomb will not catch them all, and if we don’t, it is not going to take out their launching capabilities. How confident are we in our shields?”[/i] Shadow analyzed.

[i]”Shields, I’d say yes, but I really don’t like the idea of attacking like this without charged drives. Maybe we might want to pass this up, leave them for the Halcyon in two years and make sure they have nowhere to berth and repair for a few months?”[/i]

Silver was silent for a minute, thinking. [i]”That’s an… interesting point. They are going to get their shipbuilding up after we hit it in months, the Halcyon won’t launch within two years… Ladies, what if we are going about this all wrong? Would it not be better to hide for nine months and then go on a rampage just prior to the attack, so they are at their weakest? Can we stay undetected for that long if we do recon flights in the meantime? Maybe we should give this one up and stay quiet.”

Pyxis was stunned. [i]”How did we not realize earlier? But it gives us the advantage! We slip into Sirius undetected now and observe, learn everything there is about the system. Think of everything we can learn: Patrol paths around our targets, previously unknown ship classes, their signatures, mindspace echoes, maybe we can even listen in on low-priority communications. We change this from a deep strike with elements of recon into recon with a grand finale. It’d make our attacks, and the entire war, much easier. Besides, if the Sirius shipyards start blowing up, the Sandmen will investigate, possibly leaving the nodes weakened after two years of inactivity.”[/i]

[i]”My bloodlust is so not happy with you guys, but it makes sense. If we can find a large enough rock to hollow with weapons fire, we might even make a comfortable garage out of it that would help avoiding detection. I guess I’m game. Did anyone bring some of those? It’s going to be a long wait. Dice?”[/i] Shadow complained, but voted a yes anyway.

[i]”I DID suggest books. Not a lot of materials to make anything. I heard of a Terran game that only required an eight by eight grid and two sets of colored pebbles, we might be able to make that.”[/i]

[i]”We can repurpose my plasma turret to a foundry, if we find rocks with materials we need. I’ll be in mindspace most of the time anyway. I have twenty one months to learn every echo I will ever need in this war, I am not passing that up. In either case, just to have a space to stretch while not being tethered to the ship might be nice. Alright, Mace, let’s wait for the traffic to get low and pass through hopefully undetected. I’ll leave a time-delayed comm buoy to send a message back to command about the yield of the Ardor and about the change in plan.”[/i] Silver decided. [i]”Speaking of which, here it comes, Typhon number 3. Where the hell are they getting the resources for so many destroyers? If we didn’t find the Lucifer, we would have been screwed the second we poked out antennae out of the Nebula. And they could support this for fourteen years!”[/i]

[i]”Maybe they’re finally starting to feel it now.”[/i] Taurus hoped. It would’ve been nice to jump to Sirius and find empty shipyards with no resources as far as the eye could see. [i]”Or we’ll find a ship the size of the Singularity shaped like a giant temple or something. In any case, any destroyer lost is good news for us, and that Typhon is number five already. Thay have to feel that.”[/i] because if losing five destroyers wasn’t a major problem for the Vasudans, what was the point in trying?

[i]”Drives in ten.”[/i] Pyxis reported.